I always here such bad experences, so I thought I would post mine, which is somewhat better. I had my Lasik on 03/16/07. First let me say that I was SOOOO nervous before the surgery. Several times a day I had to fight myself not to call and cancel the appt. all together. While I found the "horror stories" helpful in understanding the possible side effects, I think they scared me quite a bit. There seems to be more bad stories floating around than good ones!

The Day Of The Surgery:

I got up early and took a quick shower and got ready to leave. I wore comfortable warm clothes and spent the majority of the morning listening to my fiancee tell me how wonderful it would be to see without my glasses and how everything was going to be okay. Frankly, I ignored him! Wonderful to hear and all, but when you are that nervous, nothing really helps :lol:

We get to the place super early (arrived at 10amappt. at 11am) so I got to watch some of the other procedures over the TV's. This also may have been a bad idea, since it scared me more. Anyway, I was finally called up to go over the paperwork and payment, and then back to the office for more eye tests and scans. Then I met with my doctor and he offered me sedative to calm down. He gave me two and said something about giving me extra to take afterwards, but I must have misunderstand cause I took them both right there! He just laughed and said I would be ok, and at least I would be really relaxed. Sure enough about 15 minutes later I was nice and loopy and ready for surgery.

Ok... here's the scary part. I got into the room and was preped. The doctor took one last look at my eyes, asked how I was doing, and layed me on the table. The put in all the drops and set up the machine. Then they started. Now, everyone I talked to said that you don't feel an ounce of pain. And I believed them. They were wrong :( I felt almost everything. I think that most likely, my eyes just were not numb enough. To be fair, I can't say it was real pain, but it was EXTREME discomfort. My fiancee who was watching it later told me that my eyes were jumping all over the place! But in the end, it went quickly and I was able to get through it. The doctor put in more drops and some goggle looking things, and sent me on my way. I took a couple Tyonol PM's that they gave me and we started the hour long drive home. I slept the whole way!!

I got home and got into bed. But I couldn't fall back asleep!! I can't tell you how important it is to sleep for the first 4 hours, because this is when all the pain is. After taking the sedative and tyonol I was scared to take anything else, but after 30 minutes of pain (yes, PAIN) I broke down and took some Ambian. I was out about 10 minutes later and slept for another 4 hours. When I woke up, everything was fine. My eyes were a little sore, but nothing bad and I could see everything just fine! It was amazing actually, I was expecting things to be blurry for a while. I ate some dinner and talked to my family for a little bit, but I was still drousy from the ambian and went back to sleep about 1.5 hours later. I slept until 2:30 in the morning!

I just want to say that this is VERY rare. I am 99% positive that I was not numb enough and that if I was, I wouldn't have felt a thing. So I hope that didn't scare anyone too much. And besides, in the end I feel it was worth it.

The Day After:

Had my follow up appt. at 8:30am. They checked my vision and it was 20/20! And I could see it all clearly. I was able to even see most of the 20/15 line, but it was a bit blury so I don't think that counts. The doctor checked my eyes and said that the right one was a bit inflamed and I had to up my drops for that eye from once every 4 hours to once every two, but just for the day. Also, my left eyes looks terrible. There are red blotches all over it, which is what happens when your eye is bruised I suppose. But the doctor said it was perfectly fine and this would go away in the next 7-10 days. But my vision was clear all day, and I could see just as good as when I wore my contacts.

Just a few notes. First off... if you have access to a Costco or something similar, go there to get your moisture drops. I went to target first and a 30 pack of them was $13. I went to Costco and got 100 of them for $17! (the single use preservative free drops) I have to use them for 2 weeks. I was told that after that I could use regular drops, but just to be safe, I bought the "preservative free in the eye" ones, figuring this was the next best thing.

Second, I did see some pretty crazy starbursts last night when I was outside. It was like watching a firework show everytime a car passed. This is completely normal, but I have no halo's or ghosting. And so far, no problems with dye eyes so far.

I have my 1 week follow up on the 22nd, so I will post an update then.